Tag: Relationship Goals

‘Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.’ Genesis 2:18-25(NLT)

‘Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.’ Ecclesiastes 4:9-12(NLT)

Creation is so basic to understanding relationship goals that we need to go back there for a second devotional. With me?

God made the sun and the moon and the sky and said, “It is good.” He made water and dry land and said, “It is good.” He made plants like spinach and kale, and then, for me, all the ingredients for a delicious soul-food dinner, and said, “It is good.” Then He made the sea creatures like Willy and Nemo and Flounder, and all the wild animals like Timon, Pumbaa, and Simba, and said, “It’s good.” When He made Adam, He said, “It’s very good.” It was all good.

But pretty soon God said for the first time, “It’s not good.” It’s not that God had messed up—He never messes up. Something was missing. “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone’ ” (Genesis 2:18).

This principle is true for all Adam’s children as well. It’s not good for you to be alone. It’s not good for me to be alone. 

When we set up a life that is guarded and gated, the enemy comes to attack us. When we’re isolated, we’re at more risk of listening to lies about who we are and coming to believe them as truth. 

We all need relationship with people who can remind us of the truth and dispel the falsehood, who can show us some of the love our hearts need, who can help us along our way. God knows this. And that’s why God wants relationship for us. 

Is it hard for you to believe that a major part of God’s plan for your life involves relationship? 

He wants you to have a best friend, even though the last one stabbed you in the back. He wants you to have pastors and mentors who create a safe place to grow and become. He wants you to be in a marriage that works and is marked by love, honor, respect, and fun. Granted, your past relationships might have been, well…the opposite of that. But God is a Redeemer, so He can take whatever is broken and jacked up and work it for your good. 

Spend some time thanking God for your existing relationships and asking Him to guide you into new ones that will help you fulfill His purposes in your life.

from Relationship Goals by Pastor Michael Todd

‘Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”’ Genesis 1:26-28(NLT)

‘This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth.
The Man and Woman in Eden
When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches. The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found. The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there. The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates. The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”’ Genesis 2:4-17(NLT)

Before there was ever a person on this earth—and in fact before there was even an earth—there was already relationship. How’s that? It’s because God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit existed as three persons in one. 

Now, I can’t totally explain the Trinity. Nobody can. It’s real, but how it works goes beyond our ability to comprehend. The thing is, the Bible makes it clear that the three persons of the Trinity have dwelled together forever. 

Meaning relationship was, is, and forever will be. Cool, huh?

Maybe the coolest thing about all this (for us anyway) is that humanity was created out of that everlasting relationship. The Trinity had a conversation and agreed, “Let us make human beings in our own image” (Genesis 1:26). The Trinity didn’t need us. They were already perfect, complete, and fulfilled within Themselves. But out of the overflow of Their love, They decided to create humans, both male and female.

The first human, Adam, lived in the Garden of Eden with God as his companion from his first day. In other words, he had a relationship with God before there was even one other human to know. 

The picture we get in Genesis 2—3 is that God and Adam were homies. They would hang together in the garden, talk about this and that, and take walks to look at the shiny new plants and animals while enjoying the cool evening breeze together. All by themselves, just the two of them.

Here’s what we need to get out of this: No matter what other relationships we have (or don’t have), all of us can have a relationship with God. Through Christ, He invites us into the same kind of connection He has within the Trinity—a loving, giving relationship. 

Even though the top relationship goal we have on our minds right now probably is finding or improving a human relationship, it’s important to see how our relationship with God should come first and above all other relationships. It’s the relationship, our ultimate relationship, and all blessings flow out of that relationship. 

What is your relationship with God like? How does it affect your human relationships?

from Relationship Goals Pastor by Michael Todd